Literary Birthday – 19 January – Edwidge Danticat

When you write, it’s like braiding your hair. Taking a handful of coarse unruly strands and attempting to bring them unity.

People are just too hopeful, and sometimes hope is the biggest weapon of all to use against us. People will believe anything.

Someone has said that nations have interests, they don’t have friends, and you see that over and over in U.S. policy.

Create dangerously, for people who read dangerously. … Writing, knowing in part that no matter how trivial your words may seem, someday, somewhere, someone may risk his or her life to read them.

Most Americans are very limited in their interaction with the world, unless the world comes to us in a very shocking way.

I didn’t tell you this because it was a small thing, but little girls, they leave their hearts at home when they walk outside. Hearts are so precious. They don’t want to lose them.

Pretend that this is a time of miracles and we believe in them.

She told me about a group of people in Guinea who carry the sky on their heads. They are the people of Creation. Strong, tall, and mighty people who can bear anything. Their Maker, she said, gives them the sky to carry because they are strong. These people do not know who they are, but if you see a lot of trouble in your life, it is because you were chosen to carry part of the sky on your head.

It is the calm and silent waters that drown you.

Edwidge Danticat is a Haitian-American author. She has written several books including Breath, Eyes, Memory, an Oprah Book Club selection; Krik? Krak!, a National Book Award finalist; and The Farming of Bones, an American Book Award winner.